Domesticated bee-keeping technology has advanced substantially over the past couple of centuries, but one thing that has not changed much at all since the 1860s is housing for domesticated bees. In 1860, Lorenzo Langstroth obtained U.S. Pat. No. 9,300 on a man-made beehive design that is still primarily used today. Although many of the features of the Langstroth man-made bee housing design were revolutionary when conceived and still are used today including Langstroth frames and associated spacing, one drawback is the requirement to manually lift rectangular boxes to extract honey from a hive inside the housing. These boxes can weigh up to about 60 pounds when fully loaded with beehive structure and honey. During certain seasons, it is desirable for a bee keeper to check on the queen bee in a beehive at least about every ten days or so. Thus, lifting and moving multiple heavy boxes takes a toll on the bee keeper is simply not possible for some people, such as people with physical disabilities.
Nonetheless, the substantially vertical arrangement of the Langstroth man-made bee housing is actually the manner in which bees in nature build their hives. Thus, there is evidence in nature that bees prefer a substantially vertical orientation for their beehives.
What is needed, therefore, is a man-made bee housing that is maintained in a substantially vertical orientation but that is accessible to persons of all ages and capability levels (including, e.g., persons unable to lift a heavy box from a Langstroth device).